40 lives that even many Japanese would envy, is shared widely. The same cabdriver who called Singapore dull admitted after a bit of questioning that he grew up in the nineteen -fifties in " h h " h a one-room s op ouse, were a seven-member family both worked and lived. His parents slept on the bed; he slept under it. Today, he lives, with his wife and two children, in a three- bedroom apartment, which they own. From economics to food, Singapore is a nation of contradictions. Except for Japan, it has the best-educated, most knowledgeable, and most worldly-wise society in Asia, but the government still tries in many ways to regulate its citizens' lives. Although Singapore has no enemies-Communism no longer poses a threat, and the island's rela- tions with its immediate neighbors, Malaysia and Indonesia, are vastly improved-it continues to maintain one of the largest armies in the world proportionate to population, and has a ruthlessly efficient and intrusive intel- ligence agency, the Internal Security Department, or I.S.D., that is tireless in its pursuit of dissent. Despite the fact that Singapore is a bastion of capital- ism, the government owns many of the largest local companies and frequently interferes with economic decisions. The government is so prudish that it bans Cosmopolitan as well as Playboy, yet the national airline promotes itself with slogans on the order of "Singapore Girl you're a great way to fly." And although Singapore has a great many "hawker centers," each with an ethnic mélange of food stalls, that offer some of the best street food in the world, young Singaporeans flock to American fast-food restaurants, including no fewer than thirty-four McDonald's. F or any Westerner accustomed to Asian cities choked by pollution, traffic jams, and snarled communications, Singapore is an oasis. The airport is so efficient, the taxis are so numerous, and the roads are so good that a visitor arriving at Changi Airport, on the eastern tip of the is- land, twelve miles from downtown, can reach his hotel room there thirty min- utes after stepping off the plane. That visitor can drink water from the tap; get busi- ness cards, eyeglasses, or a tailor-made suit the day after placing an order; and ride a modern subway system whose receives a present in the mail must send it to a government agency, which puts a price tag on it and then offers to sell it back to the recipient. If the employee doesn't want to buy it, the gift is sold at an auction. Such is the shame at- tached to corruption that in 1986, when the Minister of National Development was accused of accepting a bribe to save private land from government acqui- sition, he committed suicide. The government of Singapore, ever fearful of snakes in its capitalist Gar- den of Eden, loves to make rules. The walls of buildings are plastered with rules, telling people what they can't do and how much they have to pay if they dare to try it. The fines represent considerably more than a slap on the wrist, and they're enforced often enough to make most potential miscreants think twice. Eating or drinking on the sub- way costs the equivalent of three hun- dred and ten American dollars, driving without a seat belt a hundred and twenty-four dollars, smoking in a res- taurant three hundred and ten dollars, and jaywalking, a relative bargain, thirty dollars. Few proscribed activities are left to the imagination, as opposed to being posted; for example, in the Botanical Gardens, where "PROHIB- ITED" signs threaten to outnumber plant- identification markers, a pictograph warns against shooting at birds with slingshots. Nor do violations always depend for discovery on a passing policeman. Trucks and commercial vans are required to install a yellow roof light that flashes when the vehicle exceeds the speed limit. When a taxi exceeds the maximum speed on free- ways of forty-eight miles an hour, loud chimes go off inside; the chimes are so annoying that the driver is likely to slow down. At some intersections, cam- eras photograph the license plates of cars that pass through as the light is changing to red; the drivers re- ceive bills for that offense in the mail. The rules are frequently backed up by publicity campaigns, using advertising slogans, displays at public events, and articles in the leading newspaper, the Straits Times, which in all areas enthusiastically fills the role of government lapdog. There have been campaigns to be punctual, to say " 1 " d " h k " p ease an t an you, and to buy frozen pork underground stations as well as its trains are air-conditioned. An interna- tional phone call can be direct-dialled as quickly in Singapore as in the United States. All business can be conducted in English, because it is the language that all the schools use. (Only one out of five Singaporeans speaks English at home, though.) While the dreary high- rise buildings convey no atmosphere, Singapore has retained enough green- ery to make it a pleasant city for walking. Every block has trees and flowers; the island's entire east coast, facing the South China Sea, is a string of parks and beaches, and only half an hour from downtown are a nature preserve and some semi-rural areas with farms. No litter mars a walk through Singapore's streets, because a litterbug must pay a fine of up to six hundred and twenty dollars and un- dergo counselling. (Cigarette butts count as litter, and many of Singapore's litter baskets-there are forty-five thousand of them-are equipped with ashtrays.) Everything in Singapore is clean; ev- erything in Singapore works. In a nation known for efficiency, the government is most efficient of all. In other parts of Asia, government ser- vices càn take an eternity to arrive and then come bound in red tape, the instrument for cutting away the tape being a bribe. But in Singapore when someone calls to report a pothole the Public Works Department fills it within forty-eight hours. The Telecommuni- cation Authority will install a new phone the day after the order is re- ceived. Secretaries are so conscientious that a journalist gets unsolicited wake- up calls to make sure he'll be on time for early-morning interviews with their bosses. A bribe, whether a little tip to an employee or a large payoff to a high-ranking minister, represents a ticket to jail. A postman was once arrested for accepting a gift of one Singapore dollar, equal to sixty-two American cents. A civil servant who .-... Busted